Singhal was said to have endeared himself to Mulayam Singh Yadav as well.

Ostensibly, two factors have apparently caused Singhal's ouster in such a short stint. The first - last Sunday Singhal went to Delhi to attend a party hosted by Amar Singh at his residence.

The other was a proposal to allot 750 acres of land along the Yamuna Expressway to Ramdev's Patanjali Yogpeeth for industrial and institutional purposes. Singhal allegedly had a vested interest in the deal.

As the Patanjali land deal is yet to be formalised, his attending Amar Singh's party was more likely to have triggered Singhal's sacking.

Singhal was the principal secretary, irrigation, a department which comes under Shivpal's domain, for a long time before he was made the chief secretary.